The Three Natural Forces That Drive Every Life

Phra Ajarn opens by saying that practice is essential for every life, because life depends on merit to sustain it — to keep the human condition strong, healthy, and long-lived, prosperous in worldly and spiritual terms alike. Even the ability to sit and walk normally depends on merit. Merit is the pure energy born of the wholesome force in nature; when the wholesome force manages to seize the seat of the heart, it draws that energy — merit — into us.

He explains that our life never ceases to be a channel through which energy flows. Whichever natural force seizes control first draws in its own energy to drive its own system. If the unwholesome force takes hold of the heart, it draws in the energy of defilement — sin — driving the unwholesome system, pressing our inner elements down. If the neutral/indeterminate force (abyakata) takes hold, it drives its own system instead, leaving life neither happy nor suffering, simply drifting along — not a comfortable kind of neutrality, but a different, stranger kind altogether.

Developing Right Mindfulness: Discerning Body, Feeling, Mind, and Mental Objects

Given this, we must learn to develop right mindfulness, to draw in wholesome energy. The Buddha taught: "Monks, you should clearly discern body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, in order to dispel covetousness and displeasure toward the world." Setting the mind's focus is where wholesome practice begins — wherever we place our attention, the mind settles there. If we focus on the breath, the mind settles on the breath: a short breath in, we know it; a long breath out, we know it. Or we can focus on the rise and fall of the abdomen — rising, we know it rises; falling, we know it falls — mindfully aware. All of this is how the sphere of mindfulness comes to be established.

Once mindfulness is established, we become aware of the behavior of whichever force has entered. Focusing on the body, we notice our postures. Focusing on feeling, we notice pleasure, pain, or neutral feeling — if the wholesome force has entered, we feel glad and at ease; if the unwholesome, we feel upset; if the neutral force, we feel simply blank, neither pleasure nor pain. Focusing on the mind, we notice thoughts and the inner voice arising — the workings of mental factors. And focusing on mental objects, we notice the state or mood of the mind as it appears in each present moment — appearing nowhere else but in our own heart, right now.

Merit Flows Through the Sphere of Mindfulness, Clearing Away Defilement

Once mindfulness is established, it draws in pure energy — merit — flowing continuously into the bright center of that sphere. Merit then drives the wholesome system, refining and correcting, clearing away defilement, because merit is purity itself; when pure energy meets the energy of defilement, purity dissolves it away entirely. As defilement lightens, the problems and hardships of life lighten too, and once whatever binds us to the coarser dimension falls away, the more refined dimension draws us in — a continuous liberation from one dimension into another. This is not liberation into a noble being, but the liberation that happens continuously as we abide within the wholesome system.

Covetousness, Displeasure, and the Balance of Equanimity

The Buddha taught us to discern in order to dispel covetousness and displeasure. Covetousness (abhijjhā) is greed, the delight that gives the unwholesome an opening to lead us toward wanting more — once we delight in something, we chase after having it. Displeasure (domanassa) is aversion, dissatisfaction that the unwholesome uses as its opening to stir up irritation. Both cause trouble, for ourselves and for those around us — delight becomes the seed of greed, aversion becomes the seed of anger.

The Buddha therefore taught us to hold the mind in balance, letting equanimity arise, relying on the mental factor of tatramajjhattatā — the factor that keeps the mind from swaying toward delight or aversion, holding it steady and balanced. When the mind is thus balanced, merit can flow continuously within the wholesome sphere of the mind.

Why We Focus at the Seventh Base

His own teachers advised focusing at the seventh base at the center of the body, because this position is the gateway leading straight to the path of Nirvana. One finds this point by laying the index and middle fingers together at the crossing of two lines — one running up from the navel, the other running left to right — and measuring two finger-widths above that crossing point. This is the seventh base, the seat of the sphere of arising, ceasing, waking, and knowing.

Eyes Softly Closed, Aided by Outer Light

Seeing anything within still requires light. If our own inner light has not yet appeared, we can rely somewhat on outer light by keeping the eyelids gently lowered rather than shut — this lets outside light help the inner image appear more clearly.

Reciting "Samma Arahang"

He has us recite, with a deep, subtle awareness, "Samma Arahang, Samma Arahang." The mind is a wishing gem: whatever we set it upon, that is what it becomes. "Samma Arahang" is the name of the One Who Has Practiced Well, whose practice leads away from every defilement. When we speak his name, form follows, since form and name are always paired. He takes on the task of refining our elements of seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing, along with the elements of earth, water, wind, and fire, making them clear and pure. What he wishes is for us to merge with him into a single unity, so that he can help us with the greatest possible effectiveness.

We merge with him by taking on the feeling that we are the Buddha-image, and the Buddha-image is us, the way an actor takes on a role — letting our whole body become a radiant, clear, cool, clean, pure crystal Dhammakaya, from the head, face, and torso down through the arms and legs. This Dhammakaya is our true self. He stays with us at all times, day and night, whether we are asleep, awake, standing, walking, sitting, or lying down.

Stillness Within Stillness, Into the Center of Center

Once our body has merged with his, we merge our mind with his too — whatever he does, we do the same. He enters cessation-attainment, gathering his mind, stopping, and stilling it; we gather our mind, stop, and still it too, at the center of the Buddha-image, the center of our heart, the center of our body. Stillness within stillness, softly, at ease, cool and clear, going ever deeper into the center of center — not left, not right, not forward, not back, not up, not down — going ever more subtly inward.

Dropping Into the Center: When the Mind Falls Precisely Into Place

He explains that as we continue sinking into the center of center in this way, when the mind becomes refined enough, precisely aligned within the center of center — not left, right, forward, back, up, or down — a "dropping into the center" occurs right there, in the center of center itself. This is a precise, unforced sinking into the very center, arising naturally rather than through strain or haste. Once this dropping occurs, we remain still and soft, at ease, continuing on within the center of center, sending the mind straight toward the path to Nirvana.

Merit Flows Continuously Through the Sphere of Awareness

As we maintain awareness without ever losing it, the sphere of mindfulness is established, and it draws in pure energy — merit — flowing continuously into its bright center. This pure energy consists of an element of merit that is pure, sacred, powerful, able to dissolve every defilement that causes suffering. Within the sphere of merit lies happiness, along with refined resources — form, wealth, virtue, retinue, honor, praise, the fruits of the path and Nirvana, and knowledge of the Dhammakaya. He stresses that the sole role of the human body is simply to maintain awareness without ever losing it; the work of refining our inner elements belongs entirely to the wholesome system within.

Radiating Loving-Kindness

He teaches us to benefit others and all beings with the tool of loving-kindness, calling to mind the heart of a mother overflowing with love and genuine goodwill toward her young child. We make the aspiration that all beings in the world be free from suffering and find happiness — those suffering greatly, may their suffering lessen; those suffering little, may they be free of it entirely; those with little happiness, may it increase. We then expand this loving-kindness outward, filling our home, our village, our district, our province, our country, neighboring countries, until it covers the whole world, making it a radiant crystal world, clear, cool, clean, and pure — covering earthbound devas, sky devas, every heavenly realm, the Brahma and formless-Brahma worlds, as well as the hell realms, hungry ghosts, and animals — and further still, out into the vastness of the cosmos, across countless stars, to the boundless multitude of world-systems.

Everyone's Own Triple Gem — Regardless of Religion

He teaches that everyone carries the Triple Gem within, whether or not they know Buddhism, and whether or not they hold any religion at all. But if a person abides within the wholesome system, the Triple Gem shines radiantly within their heart, and the stream of merit from Nirvana flows continuously through them — just as it does for us now, dwelling at the center of Nirvana, home to the Lord Buddha, every Buddha, every Solitary Buddha, and every Arahant, uncountable as the grains beyond reckoning.

The Dedication of Merit

He leads us to pay homage and make our aspiration, setting the seal of success into this radiant sphere of merit — that the merit, glory, power, and authority of Nirvana, together with the merit of his revered teachers, combine with everything we have sincerely accumulated since our first existence, becoming sacred, powerful merit that refines our body, speech, and mind, freeing us from calamity, extinguishing greed, hatred, delusion, lust, ignorance, wrong view, craving, and clinging without a trace; granting us the eye of Dhamma, strong health, long life, and the ability to keep building merit throughout this life; and that we be born into a family of right view, a crystal family, a Dhammakaya family.

He dedicates this merit to our ancestors, parents, siblings, grandparents, and revered teachers, to the devas who help and support us, and to all our karmic counterparts whom we may have wronged, asking mutual forgiveness for one another. Whatever unwholesome deeds we have committed knowingly or unknowingly in the past, may they be forgiven and never bear fruit; may we never commit new wrongdoing in body, speech, or mind. He closes with the Pali verses "Sabbe buddhānubhāvena, sabbe dhammānubhāvena, sabbe saṅghānubhāvena," and the word "Sādhu," bringing the sit to a close.